Thunder Knight

I didn't think of this, but I think you may be onto something here. I've always been primarily an Explorer (albeit with bits of Socializer and Achiever, but no Killer at all), and CoH is possibly my favorite game of all time (not just MMO, game).

I liked seeing the storylines, and I really liked not having to worry about spending months optimizing my build just to beat one boss. And I really liked how quick and easy it was to level, so I could try out lots of different characters.

After two years, I still haven't seen all the content or seriously played all the archetypes (let alone all the archetype power combinations) like I intended, and I was looking forward to more things to see and more powers to do them with.

And, until the Announcement, the game was still under active development, keeping a few steps ahead of me, so I always had something new to do.

The only other game that's come close is one where the creators actively acknowledge all four types of players (though the players there call the types Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, and Clubs) and try to cater to all of them. It's still more Spades and Hearts than Clubs and Diamonds, though, and its development rate has seriously slowed down, so I wind up playing only for a week or so every few months.

I don't know. I mean, I seriously hope so, but CoH wasn't exactly some new entry in the field, and other companies don't seem to be lining to up follow in its footsteps, instead slavishly aping WoW's Killer/Achiever style in hopes of getting a piece of its industry-dominating pie.

No, that's entirely different. Superdickery is Silver Age (and sometimes Bronze Age) Superman, decades after Siegel and Shuster sold the character to DC.

About 90% of what's on Superdickery is just covers taken out of context. Silver Age comics frequently involved Superman seeming to be a jerk on the cover, only for the actual story to show that it was actually Superman pulling a trick on someone (or, in some cases, the cover flat-out lies and the scene in question never happens in the story at all). While he did do things that were somewhat illogical or insensitive, it was never to the extremes shown on the cover. By the time the Silver Age arrived, Superman being evil (or even just mean) was supposed to be a surprise to the reader, so they used those "Evil Superman" covers to sell the comics.

The Golden Age Superman was completely different. For him, being a jerk who flaunted his power and ignored the law was right there in the stories themselves, not on a fake-out cover, and it was not only genuine, the reader was meant to root for Superman because he was acting this way. Superman destroying (and not rebuilding) entire neighborhoods full of innocent people, or blowing up cars because their owners got speeding tickets, or ruining people's lives by impersonating them and then getting them fired isn't supposed to be a surprise, it's par for the course for Golden Age Superman.

And it's that Superman, the two-fisted vigilante who acted as if he was above the law (and was loved for it), that Siegel and Shuster created.

One problem with that theory:

They've never said the game was no longer profitable (especially since, you know, it was), just that it doesn't fit with the new direction they want to take their company in. Unless I missed an announcement somewhere.

.. though, in a sense, I guess that's another reason not to sell an IP they "know" (by which I mean "wrongly think") is going to be in competition with their other titles, even if only relatively minor compared to the numbers they want. (And I say "wrongly think" because it presumes that the death of CoH will immediately send all of its players to NC Soft's other games, which is clearly not going to happen)

They do, but it's not the same. Most CO pets are closer to Controller/Dominator style pets.

I like the "Three minion, two lieutenant, one boss" structure of the Mastermind, and the wide variety of types (including three different types of human "pets"), and CO doesn't have that, just a bunch of different random pets scattered through out its various powersets.

I could make a rough approximation of my Robots mastermind there (but without the Assault bot), but nothing close to Ninjas, Thugs, or Mercs, and only a single Beast or Demon pet.

And I'm not sure it supports my favorite style of Masterminding: sitting back and letting the pets do most of the work, like an actual fictional mastermind. I direct them, they do the damage. My job is to keep an eye on everyone's health bars and throw out buffs, debuffs, and heals as required, not to attack the enemy directly.

That's disheartening. The ability to get that sort of near-invulnerability is what I love about CoH melee classes. Superman and the Hulk don't require someone behind them casting healing spells on them in order to win fights, why should I have to?

Yeah, exactly this. (Though replace "Vorpal" with "Ion"). With resistances on my Elec/Invuln Brute hitting 80% with Resilient Alpha (and 90% with Resilient Alpha and the new Set bonuses on the Test server), I feel like nothing (other than Psi and some Incarnate Trial bosses) can take me down, and that's before hitting a Barrier Destiny.

CO Invulnerability only seems to give 27% resist, but the Wiki says it scales with super stats, but doesn't explain how it scales or what it maxes out at (or if it maxes out at all). Can I hit 90% there, too?

As already said... no, it was definitely the Unlimited costume. I liked it because of the Stealth ability. Most non-bosses didn't even know I was there.

(The 2099 costume was in the game, too, but its special ability was Double Damage, so I know I didn't mix them up)

... that sounds like it destroys a huge part of what I love about leveling in CoH, looking forward to the next cool power and, when I get it, integrating it into my attack chain and overall fighting strategy.

It sounds like, if I wind up playing CO, I'll just be taking two actual attack powers, a couple of buffs/passives, and just filling in the rest with summons. Because I like summons.